Seventeen of the 30 colleges that hired coaches for their Division I-A or I-AA football programs earned letter grades of "C" or worse in a rating system set up by the Black Coaches Association to assess the degree to which their hiring processes treated minority candidates fairly, the group said in a report[1] Wednesday. Colleges were rated on such things as the composition of their search committees and how many minority candidates they officially considered, and Division I-A programs performed slightly better than they did in last year's initial survey, while Division I-AA programs performed worse.

The University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire has announced[2] that it is reviewing policies that have limited resident assistants from organizing certain religious activities in their rooms. The university's policies for its RA's have been receiving considerable attention since the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education criticized[3] the rules. FIRE and others have said that students' religious rights are being violated. The university has noted that RA's are employees of a public institution. The university announcement of its policy review stressed that the rules in place apply only to certain activities organized by RA's in their rooms and that there is no ban on the Bible at Eau Claire.

Six football players at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga face charges of rape in an incident involving a female student who says that the athletes took turns sexually assaulting her, the Associated Press[4] reported. A lawyer for the athletes said that they engaged in consensual sex with the woman.

Maryland officials have approved a joint M.B.A. program to be offered by Towson University and the University of Baltimore, despite the objections of Morgan State University, The Baltimore Business Journal[5] reported. Morgan State, a historically black institution, has complained that the new program will detract from its business offerings and run counter to desegregation goals. Towson and Baltimore officials have said that the new program addresses unmet needs in the region.

An assistant professor of music who is the choir director at the University of North Dakota says the institution is trying to fire him for being gay, the AP reported.[6] Anthony Reeves told the AP that his evaluations dropped after it became known that he was trying to adopt a 19-year-old gay student. But university officials say that the professor's sexual orientation is not related to his difficulties. Several complaints have been filed against him, one alleging that he was drunk and ignored his responsibilities while supervising a trip to Europe last summer -- charges that he denies.